Balloons
(Hugo)
By Little Black Inkblot
Hugo can remember his fourth birthday vividly – it is the first memory he has of any of his birthdays.
He remembers it all – several bunches of bright balloons in the house, a birthday cake sitting on the table in the kitchen, just begging to be eaten, playful decorations hung around the house. Lots of presents left in the living room, sporting bright wrapping paper and bows and cards. All his parents' friends and relatives and their children and Hugo's other friends, too.
And strangers, tons and tons of strangers Hugo's never seen before. Strangers that came because they knew it was Hugo's birthday, and Hugo is the son of Ron and Hermione Weasley, people who are among the most famous and influential witches and wizards of the wizarding world. They mill about the house, leaving presents on the front step.
Hugo remembers the same thing happening to Rosie on her birthday. She had opened the door and given cheerful hellos to them all, happily accepting their gifts and saying thank you just like Mummy and Daddy had taught her too.
Hugo stays in the house, eyes widened, and occasionally darts glances at all the scary people outside. He won't come out. He's already seen too many people – people who are in the house – already.
Whenever a balloon comes too close, Hugo jumps, then dashes back to a corner in the kitchen, where the only balloon is tied onto a chair – the chair for the birthday boy. Whenever he steals a look at the heaps of presents – inside or outside – he wonders if they're really all for him, or if it's all a cruel joke. He gives a small wave to the guests when they greet him, and though he'll usually play like any other toddler, this time he shies away from his friends. He stares at the cake and wonders if it's the only good thing there, and he wants to eat it badly. But as Mummy always says, Hugo can't be selfish; that's bad.
Hugo shuts his eyes and wonders when it'll all be over.
Finally comes the time when Mummy ushers him to the birthday boy's seat, and as the guests crowd around him in an enlarged kitchen, they all sing Happy Birthday to him and more than ever Hugo feels as if he's in a terribly unwanted spotlight.
After the last carried note of the "you" ends, Daddy cuts the cake and gives all the kids a piece – Mummy bought grownup sweets for the adults because the cake wasn't big enough for everyone; it was only for the children, anyway.
The double chocolate cake gives Hugo a refuge, and he savors slicing off each piece and delivering it to his mouth, chewing it slowly and then swallowing it. It's the only thing that doesn't happen only once a year, it's something that can be had without pushing him into the center of attention. Hugo can almost imagine he's shoveling Rosie's chocolate birthday cake into his mouth, or one of his cousins', and not his own.
After cake, last goodbyes, hugs, and Hugo reciting the words "thank you for coming" to every guest, the party's over, and Hugo lets out a deep breath. But before he can open his presents, Mummy tells him he has to say a hello and thank you to all the odd strangers that weren't invited. Sighing, Hugo toddles up to the door, opens it, and does just that, though his "hello" and his "thank you" are mumbles. He has a great respect for his mummy.
Then come the presents, and Hugo delights in ripping all the wrapping paper of each and every gift open without any help. He doesn't even frown when he gets something he doesn't particularly want.
But then Daddy opens the door and summons all the gifts the strangers left him into the living room, and Hugo opens them, too. But this time no joy accompanies the tearing of the bows or in the great revealing of what exactly the present is. Just burning red cheeks, widened eyes, knowing that he only got all this because of Mummy and Daddy. Do they think he'll want to get to know or like them if they leave him presents? Or do they do it just because he's special?
Hugo doesn't want to know.
He almost collapses in relief when Daddy asks him if he'd mind if they sent those extra presents from the strangers to the wizarding orphanage Uncle Harry set up, so orphans could play with all the toys.
That night Mummy and Daddy take down the balloons and the decorations, and Hugo beams as he looks upon his home, all normal again with nothing about him, nothing to point people to Hugo.
So his fourth birthday ends, and Hugo becomes one of the only children in the world who is able to wait for their next.
For two more birthdays – his fifth and sixth – basically the same events happen, events that happen around a miserable Hugo. Finally, around a month before his seventh birthday, Hugo asks Mummy, "Do I need to have a party again?"
Hugo always marvels how his mummy never seems surprised. Without even widened eyes, she replies, "Not if you don't want to, Hugo."
For his seventh birthday, there are no decorations or balloons in the house. There are no strangers leaving him presents on the doorstep, because Mummy publicly asked for no one to do this on her son's birthday. (A couple people still do, though.) There is still a cake, the one familiar thing from all other birthdays that doesn't bother Hugo, and only his closest friends are invited. Mummy explains all this to the friends and family so they aren't offended.
It is like this for all Hugo's other birthdays before Hogwarts, and Hugo revels in it. Sometimes friends ask why he doesn't have big birthdays; he just smiles and says they don't know what they're missing.
In his seventh year, Hugo's eighteenth birthday rolls around. He receives gifts and cards from his friends and parents. Usually Hugo leaves it at that and is perfectly pleased.
This time, however, he is not. He has an unexplainable feeling, a feeling for something more. Something that shows it's his birthday, his special day; something completely out of character for Hugo.
The day of his birthday also happens to be a day during one of the Hogsmeade weekends. While strolling alone, he notices that there is a small shop with toys for children. Hugo spots balloons in it. He hasn't seen a balloon since six, during Rose's birthday; she had announced that night that now that she was eight, she was too old for childish balloons.
Hugo walks in and buys himself a flashy, bright, red balloon.
He feels considerably better after that.